Brijesh Mishra the infamous education agent accused of orchestrating a scandal involving fake Canadian college admission letters has been arrested in Canada and is now facing criminal charges.
🔒 On Friday, the Canada Border Services Agency charged Brijesh Mishra, an Indian citizen, with offering unauthorized immigration advice and counseling individuals to misrepresent or withhold information from authorities.
📜 Only licensed lawyers and consultants registered with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants are permitted to provide immigration advice for a fee. No records of Mishra being a member of either the Law Society of Ontario or the consultants' college were found on their websites. It's important to note that education agents are not regulated in Canada.
🔒 Mishra's arrest took place during his attempted entry into Canada when border agents deemed him inadmissible. He remained in custody until he was charged on Friday for his alleged involvement in issuing fraudulent acceptance letters to Canadian post-secondary institutions on behalf of prospective Indian students.
🌍 These charges follow an international education scandal that garnered attention in Canada and India, where a group of international students faced deportation due to allegedly using doctored admission letters to obtain study permits.
🙅♂️ The students, reportedly numbering in the hundreds, claim they were unaware that the admission letters they received had been tampered with. They only became aware of the issue when border officials flagged them after completing their studies and applying for postgraduate work permits. Some cases were discovered during the students' permanent residence application process.
⚠️ The recent developments come after Immigration Minister Sean Fraser's announcement to halt the pending deportations of Indian international students who asserted that they were deceived by Mishra and other unscrupulous agents.
📢 "Our government is taking action against those responsible for fraud while protecting those who have come here to pursue their studies," stated Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino in a news release on Friday.
